The Zootopia 2 movie sequel was discussed recently in an interview with Jason Bateman, the voice actor for the main Zootopia character, Nick Wilde. The future Zootopia 2 cast member has talked about his ideas for the Zootopia sequel in the past, but this time, Bateman gave fans a status update on what’s going on behind the scenes with Walt Disney.

In the past year, Bateman had stated that he would like to see his character, Nick, hit the mean streets with Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin) and start “cleaning up” by “kicking ass out there.” For her part, Goodwin wanted to see the roles of Judy and Nick reversed now that they’re both police officers in the city.

“You and I know what happens at the end of the movie, and I would like them to along on this adventure in their new roles. But because they are playing new roles, I would also like to see Nick [Wilde] have to be the one to convince Judy [Hopps] that the world is worth fighting for,” Goodwin explained.

During a July of 2017 interview, Jason Bateman was speaking to Collider about Arrested Development Season 5 and the Netflix drama series, Ozark, when he was asked if there were any official conversations with Disney about producing a Zootopia sequel. Unfortunately, Disney fans will be disappointed to hear that Bateman has not officially “heard anything about the possibility of a sequel.”

Bateman went on to explain that he’s seen online reports concerning people talking about putting the Zootopia 2 movie together, but he does not “know how real it is.” The Nick Wilde voice actor admits that he has not been approached by Walt Disney in any official capacity. Bateman even went so far as to imply heavily that the Zootopia 2 movie was not a film that is 100 percent guaranteed to happen.

[Image by Walt Disney Pictures]

“I don’t think the financial performance of [Zootopia], or even the critical performance of it, would make [Zootopia 2] a fait accompli since they’re so good at what they do over there,” Bateman explained. “It’s no accident that the majority of their films are really well received, critically and commercially. We’ll see. I certainly would love to have another wack at doing some voice work ’cause I don’t know what the hell I’m doing there.”

Bateman’s comments stand in almost direct contradiction with a recent 2017 interview with Zootopia cast member Mark Smith. The actor is known as “Rhino” due to his Gladiators days, and Smith appropriately voiced Officer McHorn in the first movie. Multiple reports claimed that Smith recently “confirmed” that he will “reprise his role of Officer McHorn in the upcoming Zootopia sequel.”

Needless to say, it seems fairly odd for Walt Disney to contact the voice actor for a minor character while the voice actor for Nick Wilde remains in the dark. Fans will just have to wait and see what other news leaks out about the Zootopia 2 movie sequel.